Starting Friday, the city of Panjim will be turned into a playground for the curious, as The Story Of Space kicks off. Conceived as a massive interdisciplinary “informal learning project”, The Story of Space, which will end on November 19, follows on the successful first edition of the project called The Story Of Light, which was held in Panjim in January 2015 to celebrate the International Year of Light as declared by the United Nations. While Goa has become an increasingly popular destination for art and culture events, what sets The Story Of series apart, is its intent. “It won’t just be about art installations, but will actually be focused a lot on pedagogy, so there will be plenty of workshops and live events,” says Jaya Ramchandani, one of the founders of ‘The Story Of’ Foundation which organises the festivals. “Also, unlike most art festivals, we emphasise on the interdisciplinary approach and seek to explore questions that cut across science, art and philosophy,”
she says.

‘The Story Of’ Foundation was founded in 2014 as a platform of scientists, artists, designers, philosophers and educators, who wished to explore ways of bringing intimidating-seeming ideas out of the academic context and find more informal ways of learning. It also take into account the fact that ultimately, no subject — whether it is science or art or philosophy — exists in an independent silo.

The Story of Space explores the theme of space and features 70 projects from around the world spread over 18 locations in the city of Goa. Ramchandani says, “The government of Goa has been very supportive of our project, as have the locals. In fact, 70 to 80 percent of our audience is local and many of them are young people and school children. That is exactly what we want to encourage.” The festival brings together an intriguing array of installations,
films, lectures, performances and workshops.